Gingrich Addresses Fiery Crowd In Home District

MARIETTA, Ga. (AllPolitics, Jan. 25) -- In an emotional
appearance before his constituents, Newt Gingrich defended his
honor as House Speaker in the face of ethical woes.

"If at some point in your life you make a mistake, saying up
front you made a mistake is the only honorable thing you can
do," Gingrich, a Republican of Georgia, told supporters at one
of a series of town hall meetings this weekend.

But he complained that there appears to be one ethical
standard for liberals and another for conservatives.

"You can on the left do anything you want and nobody seems to
notice," Gingrich said.
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Gingrich, in his first public comments since the House voted
a reprimand and a $300,000 penalty Tuesday, said he had made
a mistake by trusting his lawyers to guide him safely through
the complex congressional code of conduct.

"I trusted the law firm to have done the job right. They
didn't do the job right and I didn't catch them," the 53-
year-old speaker said.

Some 1,000 people attended the first two meetings in Roswell
and Marietta, which were marked by raucous exchanges between
supporters and critics of the controversial speaker.

One speaker drew a chorus of boos when he said that Gingrich
should pay the fine out of his pocket.
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And he bristled at another constituent's suggestion that the
penalty could be considered a "fine" for intentionally
deceiving Congress. Instead, he said he had agreed only to
being careless.

"There was no suggestion of intent to deceive. A mistake had
been made. That is the total of what I agreed to," on the
report by the House ethics committee, he said.

He added that he would never have accepted the six-figure
penalty if it had been described as a "fine."

Gingrich said the media was partly responsible for his ethics
troubles, and accused Democrats of trying to keep public
attention on his problems in order to avoid talking about the
"things that really matter," namely the Republican
legislative agenda.

He proposed that penalties be levied against members of
Congress who file frivolous ethics charges against their
colleagues -- with triple damages levied against those found
to be "repetitively and maliciously" calling their colleagues
on the carpet.

"David Bonior [Democratic representative of Mich.] and his friends have
filed some 70 false charges. How much have they cost the
taxpayers?" Gingrich said.